When will COVID-19 peak in our area? Local health official says the window is between mid-April, late May

MASON CITY — Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health director Brian Hanft says right now, it’s tricky to accurately say when there will be a peak of COVID-19 activity in our area. 

He says, “We know there’s some projections out there, and all we can do is look at the data throughout the country and also reflect on the data that we have locally  We estimate that the peak is going to be sometime between mid-April and probably late May. I know that’s a big window, but it’s really the best that we can do. There are some models that pin it to a specific date, even saying maybe April 17th. I certainly won’t go out on the limb and say I’m going to pick that date. I feel much better with a peak date of sometime in May.”

Hanft encourages people to stay at home as much as possible, but if you do have to go out for getting essential needs, reduce your exposure to the rest of the public.  “If you’re going out for groceries, try to do so in ways that you purchase maybe twice as much as you normally would to reduce the number of times that you need to go out. If possible, only have one person going to the store at a time, again reducing that exposure. Don’t make unnecessary trips out into the public. I observe just driving to and from work and recognize that there is quite a bit of traffic on our primary streets, and so I am begging people to please stay home. You are doing a lot of good by doing so.”

Hanft says a regional medical coordination center will be based at the Iowa National Guard armory in Mason City. He says five to six people are going to come here and help provide a region-wide assessment of the pandemic situation. “This group of people are going to be in essence helping us plan for those resources that we might otherwise need. These resources are going to work with the other county emergency operations centers to do a full assessment as to what resources are available, and to determine what resources we don’t have. If there are resources that we critically need, then we will use that route through our emergency operations center locally and put in that request to the state to try to identify how we get those resources.”

Hanft reminds people to keep utilizing social distancing and to wash your hands frequently.